1. Fatma Begum was an Indian actress, director, producer and screenwriter.
15 Facts About Fatma Begum
1. 2.
Fatma Begum was the first female film director of Indian cinema.
3.
Fatma Begum launched her own production house, Fatma Films, which later became Victoria-Fatma Films, and directed her first film, Bulbul-e-Paristan, in 1926.
4.
Fatma Begum was born into an Urdu-speaking Muslim family in India and came from a background in the Urdu language theater, her family of Muslim background having spoken that tongue.
5.
Fatma Begum was trained in theater and mostly acted in Urdu and Hindi plays.
6.
Fatma Begum later shifted to films and debuted in Ardeshir Irani's silent film, Veer Abhimanyu.
7.
Fatma Begum became a pioneer for fantasy cinema where she used trick photography to have early special effects.
8.
Fatma Begum was an actress at Kohinoor Studios and Imperial Studios, while writing, directing, producing, and acting in her own films at Fatma Films.
9.
Fatma Begum became the first female director of Indian cinema with her 1926 film, Bulbul-e-Paristan.
10.
Fatma Begum directed many other films, her last being the Goddess of Luck in 1929.
11.
Fatma Begum worked in her last film Diamond Queen as Faima in 1940.
12.
Fatma Begum was supposedly married to Nawab Sidi Ibrahim Muhammad Yakut Khan III of Sachin State.
13.
Fatma Begum was the mother of silent superstars Zubeida, Sultana and Shahzadi.
14.
Fatma Begum happened to be the great-grandmother of model turned actress Rhea Pillai who is the daughter of her grand daughter Durreshahwar Dhanrajgir.
15.
Fatma Begum's legacy was carried on by her daughters Sultana, Shahzadi and Zubeida acted in India's first ever talkie, Alam Ara, in addition to being a silent film star.